X begins charging new customers $1 a 12 months

Elon Musk’s X, previously often known as Twitter, has began charging new customers in New Zealand and the Philippines $1 (£0.82) a 12 months to entry key options, as a part of a brand new trial.

They embody the flexibility to tweet, retweet, like posts and reply to posts.

Those that decide out of the subscription charge will solely have the ability to learn posts, watch movies and comply with accounts.

The social media platform stated that the goal is to “scale back spam, manipulation of our platform and bot exercise”.

New accounts may also be required to confirm their telephone quantity, although Mr Musk has stated that it’s going to nonetheless be free to create “learn solely” accounts, which don’t have key options. .

Final month, the boss of X, Tesla and SpaceX advised that each one X customers might must pay for entry.

Since Mr Musk purchased Twitter for $44bn final 12 months, it has seen a steady income decline.

Whereas there’s a clear monetary curiosity for the corporate to cost customers, the controversial billionaire has stated that getting folks to pay for the service is aimed toward tackling bots.

He has beforehand stated {that a} bot prices “a fraction of a penny” to make. “But when any person even has to pay a couple of {dollars} or one thing, some minor quantity, the efficient value to bots may be very excessive”.

Paid subscribers of an enhanced service, known as X Premium, now pay for extra options like longer posts and elevated visibility on the platform.

X Premium at present prices £6.99 a month within the UK. The worth differs relying on which nation a subscriber resides in, whereas different customers can nonetheless use X at no cost.

One danger of placing X behind a paywall is that the platform might lose a big chunk of its customers. That in flip, might drive down promoting income, which at present accounts for the overwhelming majority of the corporate’s revenue.

In current weeks, the corporate has been investigated by the European Unionfor the potential unfold of terrorist and violent content material and hate speech, after Hamas’s assault on Israel.

It has additionally been fined by Australia’s web security watchdog for failing to cooperate with a probe into anti-child abuse practices.